


Paintings and Pictures

by Ken_Bear



Category: VIXX
Genre: Fluff, Friendship, Friendship/Love, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-31
Updated: 2016-01-31
Packaged: 2018-05-17 12:44:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,023
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5870089
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ken_Bear/pseuds/Ken_Bear





	Paintings and Pictures

"What do you think the meaning behind that painting is?" Jaehwan asks, pointing to a painting that was hanging on the wall. The painting was of a field of flowers with two people laying in them, a boy and a girl. The sun was setting and a beautiful range of colors from red to orange filled the sky. Jaehwan thought that if the painting played on for just a little longer, where the first tints of purple and blue light the sky and the first star couldn't be seen yet, that the sky would've actually looked empty for once.

"I think," a soft voice interrupts Jaehwan's thoughts, "that it's meaning is wanting to get away, to be free."

A smile forms on Jaehwan's face and he turns his head to the side to look at Hongbin, his best friend of eight years. He was surprised that Hongbin actually thought that was what the painting meant because Hongbin would always throw out a random answer, not even thinking about it before he said it.

"What?" Hongbin smiles when he notices Jaehwan looking at him with a bright smile.

"Nothing I just… didn't expect you to say that." Jaehwan says.

"Why?" Hongbin laughs.

"Because you don't really put thought into what you think a painting means and it seems like you put thought into it this time."

Hongbin nods his head and looks down at the floor. He knew how much Jaehwan was interested in art and when they first met 8 years ago, Hongbin had no idea how much meaning was behind some of the things he looked at. Jaehwan opened his eyes to so much more and Hongbin looks longer at a painting or a piece of art on the internet to find a stable meaning in it, will maybe tell Jaehwan what he thought about it later on. 

Hongbin doesn't remember when he decided that going to art museums in his free time became fun because he was always one for taking pictures, not creating them or looking at them. Maybe Jaehwan got him into going to them more often because whenever they were together and had nothing to do, Jaehwan would offer to visit a museum. Hongbin used to protest against going to look at art saying that there were much more better things to do like walking around a neighborhood taking pictures and just talking to each other. Now Hongbin sometimes found himself standing in front of a painting without Jaehwan by his side.

"What about this one, Binnie?" Hongbin hears Jaehwan ask and he has to look around to find Jaehwan before he sees a narrow canvas displaying a large red rose. 

"It's pretty…" Hongbin didn't think there was any meaning behind it, couldn't find any until he glanced at Jaehwan who was waiting for what he thought it meant. "Rebirth, growth." Hongbin watches as a smile grows on Jaehwan's face. "That's what I was thinking." Jaehwan says.

They come across a couple more paintings that were stunning, the meaning behind them adding so much more to the beauty, before they decided to get out of there. The early bitter April air stung their cheeks turning them a shade of pink and the wind had Hongbin shoving his hands in his pockets as they walked and walked until they reached Jaehwan's apartment. Hopefully it'd be getting warmer throughout the week so that Hongbin could take pictures outside without his hands getting too cold, gloves always making his hands too hot and sweaty.

 

 

Hongbin learned that Jaehwan didn't like having his picture taken in the first year of their friendship but if you look through Hongbin's camera, it's mostly pictures of Jaehwan. He always took them when Jaehwan wasn't paying attention because if he didn't Jaehwan would've asked him to delete the picture until he finally did delete it. Hongbin never did understand why Jaehwan hated having his picture taken because he always looked beautiful in the pictures.

The strap on Hongbin's camera scratched the back of his neck as he walked around Jaehwan's apartment. Jaehwan was still sleeping in his room and Hongbin didn't want to wake him up yet because he looked so peaceful when he slept. Hongbin walked into the room where Jaehwan keeps all of his work, paintings and plain canvases propped up against the walls. He picks up one of the paintings that catch his eye and holds it up. In the painting there's a pathway with a couple walking holding an umbrella and there are trees and lanterns surrounding the pathway. The trees aren't just green, they're colorful and everything looks wet so it has to be raining in the painting, a reason why the couple is carrying an umbrella ([x](http://images.fineartamerica.com/images-medium-large/misty-mood-leonid-afremov.jpg)). Hongbin doesn't know why Jaehwan doesn't send some of his paintings to an art museum because they really are beautiful.

"Do you like that one?" Jaehwan's voice is still clouded with sleep and when Hongbin looks at him he's rubbing his eye and yawning. Hongbin smiles.

"Yeah, it's beautiful." Hongbin says and he sets it back down. "Why don't you send it to a museum?"

Hongbin follows Jaehwan into the main room of the apartment and Hongbin almost forgets his question by the time Jaehwan answers.

"I already tried… they didn't accept it." Hongbin smirks but quickly wipes it off his face because he knows Jaehwan is lying.

"Did you try again, with a different museum?"

"It's not that easy, Hongbin."

"You could make it easier."

"I can't, you can't make it easier. It's like saying I could make it easier for you to turn your photography into a career." Jaehwan says.

"You're a really bad lier, you know that right?" Hongbin says and Jaehwan throws a pillow at him.

"Yah!" Jaehwan laughs and Hongbin can see the growing blush on his cheeks as Jaehwan turns away from him.

Jaehwan tells Hongbin that he wants to spend the day with him and Hongbin waits as Jaehwan gets ready. Hongbin didn't know what they were going to do today but he was hoping that he could take some pictures, maybe they would visit one museum for Jaehwan or Jaehwan could get some inspiration for one of his future paintings by looking around as Hongbin took pictures.

They are walking out of the apartment together when Jaehwan said he was ready to go and Hongbin was happy to be able to take pictures with Jaehwan by his side again. Jaehwan stopped outside of a coffee shop and asked Hongbin if he wanted anything in which Hongbin politely declined. Jaehwan came back with a cup of coffee in his hands and they set off walking again.

Jaehwan takes Hongbin to a place where he can take some good pictures, a bridge that crosses over a river. Hongbin has never been to the place that Jaehwan is taking him and he is hoping to get some good snap shots of the place. When they reach the bridge Hongbin turns on his camera and lifts it up towards Jaehwan. Jaehwan hears the camera snap a picture and quickly looks at Hongbin who is smiling.

"Delete it!" Jaehwan yells playfully.

"But it's a good one."

"I don't care delete it Hongbin!"

Jaehwan was about to reach over to grab Hongbin's camera but Hongbin shows him the picture he took and Jaehwan can't say that it's not a good picture of him because it is a good one. "Fine." Jaehwan says and he let's Hongbin keep the picture. But Jaehwan would never know how many pictures Hongbin has of him.

They stop walking and Jaehwan leans against the wooden railing keeping them from falling in the water. "Have you ever thought about turning photography into a career for yourself?" Jaehwan asks and Hongbin pauses before taking a picture of the water.

"Not really." Hongbin says.

"You should start looking into that, you're already amazing. Get your Fine Arts degree." Jaehwan says.

"And you should start looking to get your paintings out there." Hongbin says and Jaehwan chuckles.

"Hey, at least I'm thinking about it."

Hongbin takes a picture of Jaehwan's hands holding his cup over the water. "Maybe I'm taking these pictures to put in my portfolio and you just don't know it."

"But I would know because you would've told me if you were applying for a college so that I could help you." Jaehwan says and Hongbin can tell he is smiling now. 

"True." Hongbin says and he begins walking further down the bridge to take more pictures, Jaehwan following him.

The wind began blowing creating ripples in the water and Hongbin takes a picture of it, showing Jaehwan because it came out beautiful. Hongbin took about 20 more pictures of the area before they headed back because Jaehwan was complaining that the wind was getting too cold. Jaehwan needed to buy some of his art supplies that he was running low on and a new easel because the one that he bought eight years ago was worn out so they stopped at an art store that was closer to Jaehwan's apartment. Hongbin also picked up more film for his camera that he has at his home. When they got back to Jaehwan's apartment Hongbin sat down deleting the pictures that came out a bit blurry and the ones he didn't like as much.

 

 

Hongbin woke up one night when he was sleeping on Jaehwan's couch, which was surprisingly comfortable, to use the bathroom. When he was done he turned off the bathroom light and on his way back he stopped outside of Jaehwan's room where he kept his paintings. The light was on.

Hongbin slowly pushed the door opened and he was relieved to see it was Jaehwan. "What are you doing?" Hongbin asks as he walks closer to Jaehwan, squinting from the light.

"Sketching…." Hongbin peaks over Jaehwan's shoulder and looks at his sketch. There's a girl turning around and she has long hair but by the looks of it Jaehwan is making the hair a galaxy. Hongbin watches as Jaehwan grabs for the black, blue, and purple markers and when he colors a part of the hair he smudges it out with his fingers, the color staining his fingertips. Jaehwan playfully puts his colored fingertips into Hongbin's face and Hongbin shoves his wrist away, laughing.

Hongbin pulls the extra chair in the room over and sits by Jaehwan. "Could you not sleep?" Hongbin asks and Jaehwan shrugs.

"Yeah. Since I couldn't sleep I thought I could maybe draw something, anything that came to me really. This was the first thing that popped into my mind."

"Jaehwan, it's amazing." Hongbin says. Hongbin rests his head on Jaehwan's shoulder. "I wish I could draw like you."

"I wish I could take pictures as good as you do." Jaehwan says and Hongbin chuckles before yawning.

"You should go back to sleep." Jaehwan says and Hongbin looks up at him.

"And you should go to sleep." Hongbin says smiling at Jaehwan.

Jaehwan nods his head before yawning himself. "Maybe I can finally go to sleep now."

They both stand up and Hongbin walks back into the main room, trying to not trip on anything as he made his way back to the couch he was sleeping on in the dark room and Jaehwan tells him good night before he goes to bed himself.

 

 

Hongbin was sitting on the edge of Jaehwan's bed going through the pictures on his camera and when he gets far enough, the pictures of his home come up. He hears Jaehwan's footsteps as he walks into the room and Hongbin laughs when he flops onto the bed. "What are you doing?" Jaehwan asks as Hongbin moves to lay on his back, his head right next to Jaehwan's.

"Looking through my pictures of home." Hongbin says. He comes across the pictures he took of the last sunset he experienced back with his family and a smile comes to his face. The sunset looked like that one picture with the boy and the girl sitting in a field that he saw with Jaehwan. Hongbin forgets what being at home feels like because he hasn't been there ever since he left about a year ago and he's only been with Jaehwan for a few days now.

"Do you miss them?" Jaehwan asks and Hongbin nods his head. The pictures he was looking at with Jaehwan were taken around the time he left them. Hongbin left two years after he graduated becuase he was still saving his money for the big trip. He wanted to take pictures of the world, not just where he lived, and he left. Everybody used to tell him to travel the world when he was young so it didn't come as a surprise when he told his family what his plans were for the next year or two. Now that he's back he realized how much he missed everybody and decided to spend a little more time with Jaehwan than what he expected he would.

Hongbin could feel Jaehwan's eyes on him instead of the camera screen so Hongbin lowers his camera and turns his head to Jaehwan.

"I missed you, Hongbin." Jaehwan says.

"I missed you too. You're part of the reason why I came back early." Hongbin smiles and he looks at the ceiling. When Hongbin looks back at Jaehwan, Jaehwan is still looking at him and their eyes meet. 

After a while of just looking at each other Jaehwan lifts himself onto his forearm, hovering over Hongbin. Hongbin stares at him as their faces come closer and Hongbin's eyes look at every part of Jaehwan's face, stopping at his lips. "What are you doing?" Hongbin asks and his voice is a bit shaky and he knows Jaehwan can hear it.

"Just say so if you don't want me to." Jaehwan says before his lips brush over Hongbin's and Hongbin had no idea how much he actually wanted this until it happens.

Hongbin kisses Jaehwan back no matter how weird it feels kissing your best friend and Jaehwan puts a hand on Hongbin's cheek. Hongbin leans into the touch as he opens his mouth and Jaehwan takes the access. He feels like going crazy the moment Jaehwan's tongue touches his own and Hongbin has too many thoughts running through his head at the moment. Did Jaehwan have feelings for him? How long has he been waiting?

Hongbin's mouth was still open when Jaehwan pulled away and Jaehwan chuckles, wiping some of his saliva off of Hongbin's bottom lip. Hongbin opens his eyes and his cheeks slighty turn pink when he sees Jaehwan still hovering over him. Jaehwan lays on his back again and Hongbin closes his mouth, holding his camera back up but he lowers it down again.

"Why'd… you kiss me?" Hongbin asks.

"…I felt like it was right." Jaehwan says after a while. "Did you not like it?"

"No, I liked it…" _more that I should've._

Hongbin raises his camera back up when Jaehwan doesn't reply. "Want to see pictures of Tokyo?" Hongbin asks when the silence becomes awkward.

"Sure. I didn't know you went to Japan." 

"It wasn't in my plans to go there but then I figured that I should just go so that I wouldn't regret it later." Hongbin says and when he finds the first picture he took in Tokyo, it felt like it was only yesterday that he was there.

 

 

Jaehwan ran his hands along a textured painting even though there was a sign that said to not touch. He always wondered how a person could make a textured painting that was so good that it was featured in a museum. Jaehwan could make anything and it would always come out perfect, except for textured paintings. But practice make perfect, doesn't it?

When Jaehwan finds Hongbin, one of the people that work at the museum are walking away from him. "What did he want?" Jaehwan asks as they leave.

"I was asking about a painting." Hongbin says and Jaehwan can hear the lie in his voice but he doesn't say anything about it.

Jaehwan has to walk closer to Hongbin today because of how many people were on the side walks but it didn't really matter to either of them. "Why'd you choose to come see me before your family?"

"Because I never actually got to say bye to you before I left. I still would've been exploring the world for maybe another year but I cut it short to just one year to come see you." Hongbin says. "Why'd you move to Daegu?"

"So that I could get away, it's something new, something other than Seoul." Jaehwan says with a shrug of his shoulders. "When you said you were coming to see me I was worried you wouldn't find me."

"I was worried too. When did you move down here?"

"About a month after you left."

Hongbin nods his head and he bites his tongue so that he wouldn't ask if Jaehwan was mad when he didn't tell him bye in person before he left. Jaehwan stops them at a coffee shop and asks Hongbin if he wants anything and Hongbin just tells him to get what he orders. Hongbin wasn't big on drinking coffee, not like Jaehwan was although he doesn't remember Jaehwan liking coffee before he left. Maybe he started drinking it when he moved to Daegu.

Hongbin has a warm cup of coffee in his hands when they start walking again and he takes a tiny sip of the hot beverage, burning his taste buds a bit. He lets it cool down before taking another sip. It's sweet but bitter and he doesn't know what it is so he keeps drinking it.

"When did you start drinking coffee?" Hongbin asks Jaehwan when they cross another street before entering the apartment building.

"When I started staying up late painting." They take the stairs up to the floor his apartment is on because the elevator was always too slow and Hongbin looks around as Jaehwan fiddles with the keys and trying to unlock the door.

Hongbin walks in and sets his coffee down, putting his camera around his neck. It felt weird not having it with him at his access. Hongbin takes another drink of his coffee as he walks into the painting room and Hongbin begins to think that the coffee that Jaehwan drinks is pretty good. He picks up the painting that caught his eye the first time he saw all of Jaehwan's paintings, the one with the couple carrying the umbrella, and props it up on the table using the wall. Setting his coffee down he turns his camera on and takes a picture of the painting, doing the same with one of his others paintings.

Hongbin thought that he should have asked Jaehwan about doing this but Jaehwan will thank him later.

 

 

"When are you leaving?" Jaehwan asks as he paints the outline of the sketch he had made the night he couldn't go to sleep. Hongbin was by his side again, watching every movement of his wrist.

"Hm… a week." Hongbin says.

"And you haven't thought of applying to any colleges yet?"

"I have actually, just haven't started looking at any."

"Not even one?"

"We'll, a few. I like Seoul National University, it sounds nicer than most."

Hongbin sees Jaehwan nod his head out of the corner off his eye and Hongbin feels a smile grow on his face. "I could go with you to check it out." Jaehwan offers and Hongbin couldn't be more thankful to have him as his best friend.

"I'd like that." Hongbin says. "But you'd be willing to ride up there with me?"

"Of course."

Jaehwan walks around the room looking for the bag with his new paints in it. When he finds it he takes the packet out of the bag and walks back to his easel, sitting back down in his chair and opening the packet. Jaehwan decides on starting off with the blue, mixing the color with his paint brush and painting a streak across the canvas where he had the hair outlined. He smudges the paint with his fingertips like he did before and it weakens the vibrance of the color. He also adds in some white, dipping the tip of his ring finger into the white and mixing it with the blue on the canvas. 

Going further up the outline of the hair Jaehwan does the same thing with purple and the rest of the hair outline is painted lightly with a black paint. He adds some tints of dark blue into the black along with some purple and before Jaehwan says that the hair is finished he decided on adding little stars. He makes a few with a small paint brush dipped in white in the blue part of the hair and when he moves to the purple, he turns to Hongbin. "Do you want to try it?" Jaehwan asks. Hongbin nods his head.

Jaehwan hands the little brush over to Hongbin and when Hongbin's hand nears the canvas Jaehwan sees that his hand is shaking. Hongbin makes a star like Jaehwan did, out of two lines intersecting like an x and Jaehwan still notices his shaking hand. "Here," Jaehwan takes Hongbin's hand in his and helps Hongbin make another little star. Jaehwan didn't let go of Hongbin's hand that was holding the paint brush and Hongbin looks at him. What they didn't realize was that the paint brush was still touching the canvas and it dripped, leaving a streak of white interrupting the purple as the drip ran down the canvas.

The drip of white paint didn't get far because Jaehwan noticed it before it reached the face and before Hongbin could say sorry Jaehwan smudged the still wet purple paint with the white, making the white streak less vibrant. It made it look like that's what Jaehwan meant to do and it added more to the beauty of Jaehwan's painting ([x](https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTCOSbD3XETn46yMyUGHLyOD8dwIfSpWh1chsSk4myLRVWS3wtr8Q)).

"Sorry..." Hongbin said and he handed the paint brush back to Jaehwan.

"Don't be," Jaehwan says, "It makes it look more beautiful."

Jaehwan notices that Hongbin still feels bad about the white streak so while Hongbin was looking down Jaehwan dips one of his clean fingers on his left hand in the orange and wipes the paint on Hongbin's cheek. "C'mon start smiling Binnie." Jaehwan laughs and Hongbin looks up with a smile on his face. Hongbin dips his finger in the blue and in an attempt to block the paint from getting on his glasses Jaehwan takes a step back, blue smearing across his lips and chin.

There ended up being a different color on each of their fingers and even more paint stains on Jaehwan's shirt, some of the paint even landing on the floor. There was a red streak of paint across Hongbin's lips, even more colors on his face and a bit of green in his hair that stood out because of his black hair color. When Jaehwan looked down he had a pink splatter of paint on his jeans and Jaehwan felt thankful that he wore the jeans he always painted in. 

Jaehwan and Hongbin laughed when they looked at each other and Jaehwan felt the blue paint on his top lip start to dry a bit. He continued to look at Hongbin and when their eyes met Jaehwan stood up from his chair and took a step closer lifting Hongbin's chin up so that their lips were centimeters apart. Jaehwan could feel Hongbin's shaky breath against his lips and Hongbin was the one to lean up in his chair, connecting their blue and red lips. Jaehwan wondered if he had any paint in his hair and if he didn't, he sure did when Hongbin ran his hand through Jaehwan's hair. Hongbin must have forgotten that he had paint on his hand because he gasped and instantly pulled his hand away but Jaehwan pulled it back, letting Hongbin have his hand in his hair. Jaehwan never thought that he'd like having Hongbin pull on his hair as they kissed and he never knew how much he'd like seeing Hongbin with purple paint on his lips when he pulled away.

Jaehwan wiped his lips with the back of one of his hands because he knew he had purple paint on them just like Hongbin who was doing the same as Jaehwan.

"I got paint in your hair…" Hongbin says and chuckles.

"I know, I got some green in your hair." Jaehwan says. "You can go get yourself clean while I clean this up."

"Okay…" Hongbin leaves the room and Jaehwan hears the soft click of the bathroom door shutting.

Jaehwan smiles to himself and bites his lip as he leaves to get a roll of paper towels, ripping off and dampening some of them before coming back. He starts with the floor trying to get most of the pink yellow and green splatters, moving up to the chairs next. Most of it was on his own chair which leads Jaehwan to thinking that he has paint on the backside of his pants. The messiest part was the paint pallet and the table, drops of paint everywhere. Jaehwan didn't really mind the mess though because it was created by having fun. Jaehwan sat down in a chair and began wiping off some of the paint on the pallet.

"Wow that paint smells heavier than what I expected." Hongbin says when he walks back in and Jaehwan at least got half of the pallet wiped down and clean. "I can finish up cleaning while you shower Jaehwan."

Jaehwan nods his head and when he leaves Hongbin sits down in his chair. He gets the rest of the pallet clean, being careful to not spill anymore paint. Hongbin takes one of the dampened paper towels and wipes down the able, having it cleaned with plenty of time to look at Jaehwan's other paintings.

Hongbin walks over to where Jaehwan's paintings are propped against a wall and kneels down, crossing his arms on top of his knees and he could still feel the warmth of Jaehwan's lips against his.

 

 

"Oh, look at this one!" Hongbin practically shoves his camera in Jaehwan's hands and he laughs when Jaehwan almost drops it, making a sound only dogs could hear. "I was in Hong Kong when I found that in a museum and I thought you might want to see it even though you couldn't take pictures in there. It's pretty, isn't it?"

"Yeah Hongbin, it's beautiful. Thank you for taking the picture with the risk of getting caught." Jaehwan says, handing the camera back to Hongbin.

Hongbin nods his head, his hair falling in front of his face as he looks down to scroll through his camera to see if he took another picture specifically for Jaehwan to see.

"I guess my adventure around the world hasn't come to a complete end yet for now." Hongbin says.

"How come?"

"Because I got to visit Daegu to see you." 

"You still have 6 days here, stop making it sound like you're leaving tomorrow." Jaehwan pouts and Hongbin chuckles.

Hongbin bit his lip before leaning in to place a kiss on Jaehwan's lips who was still pouting but he smiled at Hongbin's actions. 

"I went to Thailand too. The water was beautiful, look." Hongbin hands his camera to Jaehwan and Jaehwan pouts again. "You went there without me?" Jaehwan pouts and Hongbin smiles.

"We can always go together."

"But then it wont be special to you." 

"Of course it would because I'd be with you!" Hongbin tells Jaehwan.

After a while of looking through more pictures and showing Jaehwan, Hongbin turns his camera off and stands up from Jaehwan's bed, heading into the main room. Hongbin opens his suit case and pulls his laptop out, setting it down on a counter along with his camera. Once he has his laptop up and running he takes his memory card out of his camera and puts it into his laptop, pulling up his files. He adds the two pictures he took of his favorite paintings of Jaehwan's to his laptop and makes sure they copy before taking the memory card out and putting it back in his camera.

Hongbin opens his email and makes it out to the museum him and Jaehwan visit often, adding the two pictures and a brief paragraph explaining Jaehwan and his work. Hongbin reads everything over before pressing send. 

"I'm only doing this because I love you." Hongbin mutters when the message telling him his email was sent pops up and Hongbin closes his laptop, setting his laptop and camera in his suit case. Hongbin would've forgotten about it but he pulls out a deep blue shirt that he got for Jaehwan from Thailand because he knows how bad Jaehwan wants to go there.

Hongbin hides the shirt behind his back when he walks back into Jaehwan's room. "What took you so long?" Jaehwan asks and he has his eyes closed.

"I had to get something." Hongbin says and he smiles when Jaehwan opens his eyes. 

"What's behind your back?"

"Your shirt from Thailand." Hongbin says and he holds it out to Jaehwan. "I almost forgot about it."

"Thank you Binnie, but you really didn't have to." Jaehwan says as he accepts the shirt from Hongbin. Jaehwan stands up and kisses Hongbin and Hongbin thinks he might go crazy before this week is over.

 

 

"Yah! Why are you taking a picture of me?" Jaehwan asks and he holds a hand out in front of him, covering his face.

"Because you look pretty on the camera."

Jaehwan hits his camera down when Hongbin presses the button that takes the picture and it flashes because of how dark it was in the room, only a light and a lamp on. Jaehwan's hand comes out blurry and Hongbin deletes it anyways.

"What are you going to do if you get into that college you liked?" Jaehwan asks becoming serious.

"If I do get accepted I hope my family will help me pay for a place closer to it, just to get settled, but other than that I don't know what I'll do if I get accepted, really." 

"Don't you have to write something describing yourself?" 

Hongbin nods his head. "You'll help me with that, right? I'm not really good at describing myself."

"If you need me to, I will." Jaehwan smiles.

Hongbin doesn't know what to do from keeping an awkward silence from growing and Jaehwan makes him really happy when they're with each other so Hongbin stands up from his seat and leans down to Jaehwan's face. Jaehwan looks up at him and grabs the collar of Hongbin's shirt, pulling him down for a kiss. It's when their lips meet that Jaehwan feels his heart rate speed up like it always does and it's at that moment when Jaehwan realizes he has feelings for his best friend.

When Hongbin pulls away he places a little kiss on Jaehwan's lips and Jaehwan smiles, leaning up to do the same on Hongbin's lips.

Jaehwan yawns when Hongbin sits down next to him, resting his head on Jaehwan's shoulder, and Jaehwan looks out of the only window he has in the main room of his apartment. The stars are shining brightly and Jaehwan can see the moon clearly. "I think I might go to bed now…" Jaehwan says and Hongbin nods his head.

Jaehwan turns the light off, keeping the lamp on, before he walks to the hallway but he stops. Jaehwan turns around and rubs the back of his neck as he faces Hongbin. "You can, uh, sleep in my room with me if you want." Jaehwan says and he tries to make it not sound as awkward as it really is.

"Okay…" Hongbin says and he turns off the lamp before walking into Jaehwan's bedroom with him. Hongbin finds it a little weird when he lays down on the other side of Jaehwan's bed with their backs facing each other after Jaehwan turned off the light. Hongbin tries going to sleep but Jaehwan keeps turning until he gets comfortable and Hongbin closes his eyes when Jaehwan doesn't move anymore. He was almost asleep when he felt Jaehwan lay closer to him and Jaehwan puts his arm over Hongbin's waist, pulling him closer. Hongbin was wide awake with his heart beat keeping him up.

 

 

Hongbin wakes up with his face in Jaehwan's chest and arms around his waist that were keeping him close to Jaehwan's body. He snuggles his head into the crook of Jaehwan's neck and he doesn't realize what he was doing until he felt the arms around his waist tighten. Hongbin pulls away from Jaehwan and he stares at Jaehwan's sleeping face but he sits up when Jaehwan's eyes begin to open. Hongbin waited for Jaehwan to sit up before asking the questions he needed answers to.

"What… what is going on between us?" Hongbin asks when he knows Jaehwan is awake and aware of what he is asking.

It takes Jaehwan a minute to answer and Hongbin feels like he waits a year for every second that passes. "I don't know…"

"What's up with the random kisses all of a sudden?" Hongbin hopes he isn't coming off mean because he's not trying to, only wants to know what made Jaehwan kiss him all of those times. Wants to know why his heart races everytime Jaehwan kisses him.

"I realized I have feelings for my best friend." Jaehwan says and Hongbin only looks at him, he never thought he'd hear Jaehwan say those words.

"For how long?" Hongbin asks and he's praying that Jaehwan doesn't tell him for a long time because that would mean that Hongbin never noticed the way Jaehwan felt about him.

"I don't really know for how long… maybe when you called me saying you were coming back and you were visiting me first before your family?"

Hongbin doesn't know how to tell Jaehwan that his feelings are mutual so he doesn't and he hopes Jaehwan won't hate him for not telling him. "So are we together…?"

"Only if that's what you want."

"I don't know, it just seems too early. I just got back and it's a lot to take in right now." Hongbin whispers and he feels Jaehwan's hand on his back, rubbing random shapes that help soothe Hongbin.

"It's alright, I can wait." Are the words that break Hongbin's heart a little when he hears Jaehwan say them.

 

 

Two days later Jaehwan was helping Hongbin write his essay describing himself and why he wanted to join college. "You're charismatic." Jaehwan offers.

"Oh, good one." Hongbin says as he turns Jaehwan's offer into a sentence. "I don't think I would've thought about that one if I were doing this by myself."

"And that's why you need me when you write things." Jaehwan says and he laughs when Hongbin throws a pencil at him. "You're handsome."

"I don't think they'll care about how I look." Hongbin says and looks away from his computer screen to look up at Jaehwan who didn't say anything back to him. Hongbin chuckles when he finds Jaehwan just full on staring at his computer, a small smile pulling at the corner of Jaehwan's mouth. "What?" Hongbin asks as he puts his laptop on the floor and crawls over to Jaehwan's spot on the couch. 

Hongbin smiles as he begins reading what's on the screen, an email that Jaehwan just recieved probably. When Hongbin finds out what the email is about and who it's from, a smirk first comes to his face but then he smiles. "Jae," Hongbin calls out and he softly hits Jaehwan's shoulder, "Jaehwan that's awesome."

"They want one of my peices of art." Jaehwan says and looks up at Hongbin. Hongbin smiles wider when he watches as that sinks into Jaehwan's mind and Jaehwan's face lights up. "My favorite museum wants one of my paintings," Jaehwan's voice gets a bit louder from the hapiness he feels, "One of my paintings is going to be featured in my favorite museum!"

Hongbin begins laughing as Jaehwan looks between him and the computer screen and Jaehwan doesn't know what to do in that moment. "Hongbin, you have no idea what this means to me." 

Jaehwan begins to type out an email and Hongbin reads as he types. Jaehwan was going to bring one by tomorrow, before he travels up to Seoul to check out that college with Hongbin. Hongbin thought that it was sad that he only had a day left with Jaehwan before he's back at home with his family. He'd miss Jaehwan.

Jaehwan let Hongbin read over the email before he pressed send and Hongbin smiles, nodding his head. "Which one should I give them?" Jaehwan asks.

"The one with the couple holding the umbrella and they're walking on the pathway while its raining." Hongbin says, hoping it's a good enough description for Jaehwan to get an idea of what painting he is talking about and it is because Jaehwan nods in an agreement. "That's a good one."

Jaehwan helps Hongbin with the rest of his essay and Hongbin saves the file, will make some corrections later when he's trying to go to sleep at night. Hongbin snuggles into Jaehwan's side and it's when Jaehwan runs his fingers through Hongbin's hair that Hongbin finally knows that he definitely has feelings for his best friend.

 

 

"Ready?" Jaehwan sighs as Hongbin stands up with his suitcase, camera hanging from his neck like it always is. Jaehwan was holding his painting and Hongbin smiles when he notices Jaehwan's name in the corner, painted in white so that it stood out in contrast to the darker colors. They walk out of the apartment together after all the lights are off and head to the parking lot part of the building. It would be at least a 4 hour drive and another 30 minutes to get to the college that Hongbin wanted to check out. 

Jaehwan and Hongbin climbed the stairs until they got to floor 5, where Jaehwan's car was. Once they found it they put their things in the back seats then got into the front and Hongbin had no idea how nice Jaehwan's car was. When they were out of the parking lots Jaehwan turned onto the road that would lead them to the museum where Jaehwan's work would be featured. There wasn't as much traffic as there usually was when they were walking but it was enough to make Hongbin understand why Jaehwan never drove his car around here. 

Hongbin looks at all of the buildings that he's seen many times in the past week as they drive past because it's going to be a while before he sees them again. When they drive into the parking lot of the museum Hongbin looks at Jaehwan as he picks a random spot closer to the entrance. "I'll be back in a second." Jaehwan says as he hops out and grabs his painting and Hongbin watches him disappear into the building.

Hongbin looks around Jaehwan's car and he pulls down the sun visor above him. A peice of paper falls into his lap and it's folded. Hongbin picks it up and unfolds the paper and he smiles when he sees a tree that Jaehwan must have drawn. The branches are perfect and Hongbin wonders how Jaehwan could draw a tree's branches because Hongbin couldn't even draw a tree, a good one anyways.

Hongbin hears Jaehwan's door open and Jaehwan doesn't notice what Hongbin has until he starts the car. "Where'd you find that?" Jaehwan asks as he backs out of his spot in the parking lot and begins to drive away.

"I pulled that thing down and this came out." Hongbin says and he holds the paper up.

"That drawing is old, I think I made around the time you left. Yeah, when I moved down here."

When they drive past the apartment building Hongbin takes one look at it before he looks at Jaehwan. The 4 hour drive to Seoul begins.

 

An hour in Hongbin is tired of looking around at the trees and roads so he looks at Jaehwan instead. Hongbin takes at least two pictures before Jaehwan notices and he takes his eyes off the road for a second to knock the camera into Hongbin's lap. "You know the pictures I take of you come out great everytime." Hongbin says and he can see the tint of pink on Jaehwan's cheeks.

Hongbin takes off his seat seat belt to lean over and place a kiss on Jaehwan's cheeks and he chuckles when Jaehwan looks at him. "Im driving Hongbin." Jaehwan whines and when they come to a red light that's when Jaehwan leans over and gives Hongbin a bigger kiss on the lips.

 

In the second hour Hongbin decides to call his mom and he has it on speaker because his family already knows that he went to see Jaehwan first, is coming back home with Jaehwan. Hongbin kind of regrets having it on speaker at first because his mom is loud when she picks up.

"It feels like I haven't seen or spoken to you for 3 years!" His mother says and Jaehwan laughs but keeps it silent.

"It's been ten months mom, almost a year not 3." Hongbin says and he smiles as he leans his head on the window.

Hongbin tells his mom what his plans are when he gets home after they get caught up about Hongbin's trip but he tells his mom that he'll talk about it later. Hongbin didn't bring up getting a little apartment closer to the college he wants to get into yet because he wants to save that for later, when he sees his family. He did bring up that he wants to major in photography and that he and Jaehwan are going to check out a college before he's finally back at home. His mother tells him that she can't wait any longer to see him and she also talks to Jaehwan before they say goodbye to each other.

"I love your mom." Jaehwan says when Hongbin hangs up.

"I know she loves you too and I bet she misses you as much as she misses me because you've been gone for about the same time I have." Hongbin says and he notices that Jaehwan is slowing down, turning into a parking lot. Hongbin looks at him.

"I need my coffee." Is all Jaehwan says before he leaves the car and within 5 minutes Jaehwan is back carrying two cups of coffee, one for Hongbin even though he didn't ask.

 

Hongbin's coffee went cold before he was done with it, maybe two-thirds of it left but he still drinks it anyways. In 30 minutes they'd be at Seoul National University and Hongbin is kinda of surprised that Jaehwan didn't get lost. Hongbin didn't really know what to expect when they got there. He's looking at the familiar roads and buildings of Seoul and it warms his heart being back.

"Thank you for driving and coming up here with me." Hongbin says as he looks at Jaehwan's hands on the steering wheel. 

"You're welcome." 

The next time Hongbin feels the car slow down and come to a complete stop they're in the parking lot of Seoul National University and he looks at Jaehwan with a smile before getting out of the car. The wind ruffles Hongbin's hair as they walk to the entrance of the building and Jaehwan sees two other people around their age walking across the parking lot. Maybe they were there to check out the college just like Hongbin was.

Once they enter the building they are greeted by a man and as Hongbin explains what they are there for Jaehwan watches as the man's face lights up. "Both of you?" He asks.

Jaehwan smiles. "No, just him." He says and the door opens, letting in the wind that ruffles Jaehwan's and Hongbin's hair. It's the same people that Jaehwan saw walking across the parking lot and the man greets them, asking if they are thinking of going here and would like a tour like Jaehwan and Hongbin. The two nod their heads together.

"Okay, let's get started." The man says and as soon as he starts talking about the place Jaehwan zones out. By the looks of it, one of the other people did too. 

The man leads them up some stairs and Jaehwan watches as the other person that zoned out falls back to Jaehwan.

"What's he majoring in?" The person asks and he points to Hongbin.

"Photography. Him?" Jaehwan points to the person standing next to Hongbin.

"Music." The person smiles and he looks at Jaehwan, holding a hand out. "I'm Hakyeon."

"Jaehwan." He takes Hakyeon's hand and he's surprised by how strong the handshake is.

"That's my friend Taekwoon up there." Hakyeon says and Jaehwan nods his head. "His name is Hongbin." Hakyeon nods his head and they both chuckle.

They don't say anything more to each other, other than Hongbin and Taekwoon should be friends since they might go there together, and they listen to the man. He talks about the college and the courses that they have there all while walking through the building. The four of them are back at where they started, standing at the entrance, when the man ends the tour by saying that he hopes to see Hongbin and Taekwoon.

Hakyeon says bye to Jaehwan and that he hopes to see Jaehwan again sometime around and Jaehwan ways as they walk seperate ways in the parking lot. "Isn't it fun making friends?" Hongbin jokes when they get back to the car.

"With him it was actually."

"What's his name?"

"Hakyeon. The person that was standing by you was named Taekwoon and he's going to major in music." Jaehwan says and he gives Hongbin a kiss before driving off to Hongbin's house.

 

 

Hongbin and Jaehwan are suffocated in the hugs that Hongbin's family gives them when they arrive at their doorstep. Hongbin gives the longest hug to his mother who wouldn't let him go for a minute or two and Jaehwan was holding Hongbin's suit case when they walked in. Jaehwan set it down after Hongbin's mother insisted that it doesn't have to be carried up to Hongbin's room right away even though it was a simple task. The family and Jaehwan sit down in the main room, Hongbin's older sisters sitting on the floor and they all asked Hongbin questions about his little trip around the world as his camera was passed around. 

"Where was this taken at?" Hongbin's oldest sister asks as she turns the camera screen towards Hongbin and it's the picture of Jaehwan's hands holding a cup over the water.

"Daegu." Hongbin says and his sister nods her head as she keeps looking through his pictures.

Hongbin brings up wanting to get an apartment closer to the college he wants to go to and as he explains what it was like and what the man said about the place, he can feels his parent's eyes on him. "I was just wondering if you could help me pay for the apartment just so that I can get settled, if I get accepted into the college. That money that I was saving was for my trip and I barely have any money left from it, so do you guys think you could help me out?" Hongbin asks his parents. He looks at his father first and his father says that they would, as long as his mother wants to. "Mom?"

"Of course we'll help you out, but just for you to get settled." His mother says and Hongbin smiles. He tells them thank you over and over again and now he just has to send in his essay about himself.

When he gets his camera back from his sisters he and Jaehwan head up the stairs into Hongbin's room. When Hongbin opens his bedroom door, it's exactly how he remembers it. He sets his suit case down on his bed and opens it, pulling out his laptop.

"What are you doing?" Jaehwan asks him.

"Sending my essay in." Hongbin says and it makes it ten times easier because the man gave them the email so that he could send in his essay. Hongbin has the little message telling him it was sent shown on the screen within a few minutes and when he closes the laptop Jaehwan pulls him up, giving Hongbin a kiss.

They pull away when they hear foot steps outside of Hongbin's door and Hongbin chuckles. "Want to sit on the roof like we always used to do?" He asks and Jaehwan nods his head.

Hongbin opens the window by his bed and they climb onto the roof, sitting right next to each other. Hongbin puts his head on Jaehwan's shoulder.

"I'm gonna have to leave…" Jaehwan pouts and Hongbin lifts his head from his shoulder.

Hongbin turns Jaehwan's face using his finger and he connects their lips, licking Jaehwan's lips to get Jaehwan to give him access. But Jaehwan turns it around by sticking his tongue in Hongbin's mouth and Hongbin puts his hand on Jaehwan's cheek. Hongbin kisses him back but he stops and pulls away from Jaehwan.

"What?" Jaehwan asks and he looks into Hongbin's eyes.

"I think… I love you." Hongbin says and Jaehwan smiles.

"So can we be together?" Jaehwan asks and his voice is filled with hope that Hongbin will say yes. Hongbin nods his head and smiles. "Now I really don't want to go."

"Then don't. You can stay here with me for a while." Hongbin offers. "You can borrow some of my clothes since you don't have any with you."

"Okay…" Jaehwan accepts. "But I'll only stay until you get your apartment."

Hongbin and Jaehwan sit outside on the roof until it gets too dark out, the warmth from Hongbin's room heating them up as Hongbin closes his bedroom window. They sleep in each other's arms that night, many kisses being shared before they actually went to sleep.

 

 

A week later Hongbin finds out that he is accepted and his family and Jaehwan go out to eat as celebration for the news. The morning after he, Jaehwan, and his parents head out to find Hongbin a small apartment that he can live in for the duration of his college experience. Hongbin's classes would start in about three weeks in the begining of May, enough time for Hongbin to get moved in, and when they find a small one that Hongbin really liked his parents chipped in to help pay.

His family also helps him and Jaehwan get his things into the apartment, boxes full of his things all around. His parents also went out and bought him a few things he'd need to get started off with. Jaehwan stays long enough to help Hongbin get everything unpacked and he even stays the first night in there with Hongbin, to which Hongbin was thankful for. The last thing they got moved in was his bed and he still has to put together the bed frame but its alright for now.

Hongbin dreads waking up in the morning because Jaehwan was leaving today but Jaehwan wakes him up with kisses and Hongbin could definitely wake up to that every morning.

"I'll miss you." Hongbin says as he leans against Jaehwan's car and Jaehwan has his hand on Hongbin's hip.

"I'll miss you too." Jaehwan says and he doesn't want to open his car door but he does.

"I'll make sure to come visit you more often." 

"But what if I'm not there when you want to see me?" Jaehwan asks.

"Why wouldn't you be there?"

"Because I'm going to be going to a lot more art commissions now. But I will make sure that I'm not busy when you want to come down. And you better be here when I come back up to visit you." Jaehwan says and Hongbin bites his bottom lip as he nods his head. Jaehwan squeezes Hongbin's hand before pulling him into a hug and Jaehwan never wants to let go.

Jaehwan turns around to sit down in his car but before he does Hongbin pulls on his hand, turning him back around. Hongbin pushed Jaehwan softly against the car and kisses him for the longest time he ever has.

"Bye…" Hongbin whispers when they pull away and Jaehwan says that he loves Hongbin before he finally gets in his car, shutting his door and pulling out of the parking spot. They wave at each other and Hongbin realizes how much he misses Jaehwan already. He'd have to call Jaehwan later, when he's still got a long way to drive.

 

 

A few months later, after Hongbin got used to going to all of his classes and he and Taekwoon became friends, Hongbin is standing in a museum with Taekwoon by his side. He came to learn that Taekwoon also enjoyed looking at art and was happy that he gad someone that was willing to go with him.

"What do you think of this one?" Hongbin asks and he has a big smile on his face.

"It's very pretty, the textures of it look a lot nicer than the ones I've seen." Taekwoon says as Hongbin runs his fingers over the painting that he knows he shouldn't be touching. 

After looking at the painting for a while longer, the smile never fading from Hongbin's face, Taekwoon walks away to look at other paintings. And Taekwoon would never know why Hongbin was smiling so brightly as he looked at the painting was because it was made by Jaehwan ([x](http://image.dhgate.com/albu_304830138_00/1.0x0.jpg)). "You've made it Jaehwan…" Hongbin whispers before he turns and walks away to find Taekwoon so that they could leave.


End file.
